A slight
headache, accompanied with a sensation of fulness or distention
about the wrists, the ankles, and the throat, was nearly all of
which I had now to complain. Thus it seemed evident that a greater
part of the uneasiness attending the removal of atmospheric pressure
had actually worn off, as I had expected, and that much of the pain
endured for the last two hours should have been attributed
altogether to the effects of a deficient respiration.
At twenty minutes before nine o'clock- that is to say, a short time
prior to my closing up the mouth of the chamber, the mercury
attained its limit, or ran down, in the barometer, which, as I
mentioned before, was one of an extended construction. It then
indicated an altitude on my part of 132,000 feet, or five-and-twenty
miles, and I consequently surveyed at that time an extent of the
earth's area amounting to no less than the three hundred-and-twentieth
part of its entire superficies. At nine o'clock I had again lost sight
of land to the eastward, but not before I became aware that the
balloon was drifting rapidly to the N.
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